January 05, 2016

So... 2015 has passed... Although I did do some fun things during the year, they were overshadowed by a separation and the passing of my loving mom. I'm not going to lie, it's been one of the most trying years of my life. On the other hand, it has shown me just how strong of a person I am. For that I am grateful.

For 2016, I would like to travel more, do fun things with the kids, visit Dad as much as possible, eat healthier, dance a lot and keep my body fit as time allows. Many women out there know how hard it is being a mom and working full-time. This, coupled with other personal issues I won't go into, makes it that much more difficult. I really love my job and the people I work with, which makes up for quite a lot. I have some pretty cool friends who I am very grateful for. I have two beautiful, healthy children that are growing up faster than I care to think about. Still, it feels like a little something is missing.....like a piece of a puzzle.

I am hopeful that 2016 will be a better year for my family and I. Certainly, I plan on making the best of it, having fun, staying calm and reducing stress in any way I can to stay healthy for my kids and myself.

I hope everyone out there had a great start in the new year and may it continue to be great!! xoxo

August 07, 2015

It has been a year and a half. There is a reason why I have not posted in such a very long time, but I will not get into that. It's been rough and it continues to be rough, but I do the best I can and make the best out of what I can.

Let's talk about some cool things.

Last year in May I got a new job! Yep! It's at the University here in the Materials Science Institute, Department of Material Physics. No.... I have not become a scientist! ;-) I do all the admin stuff for the chair and I get to work with very cool nerdy scientists! It's been over a year now and I am still enjoying myself. Lots to do, crazy fun co-workers who have become very dear to me and a cool boss. What more could you ask for?

Then.... we decided to get a kitten as promised to the kids. Her name is Kayla <3 and she is a wonderful and gorgeous kitty. Meanwhile she's a year old and beautiful as ever. So glad to have her!

ADORABLE!!!

Here are a few past events... and creations ....

Card for my BF Anja....

Going away card for a student....

Birthday card for my daughter...

birthday cake for her.... decorated by her dad

A good luck lady bug... ;-)

A late evening swim....

healthy food....

mmmhhhh... power breakfast

A water rafting trip with my awesome friend Daniela! :-)

Awesome Coca-Cola photo with my BFF Christine! <3

My awesome friend Daniela & I at Triberg Falls....

and... co carting...like SUPER FAST!

and.... riding the quad in the Allgäu... :-) Mountains baby....

Got a cute little shark grey car and named her Peggy ;-)

Saw my first ever ice hockey match in Zurich! It was totally AWESOME!

Still keeping active... yay for me. :)

Last year's Halloween fun :D

Fasching this year... don't we look fabulous?! ;.)

My new glasses....

And that's a wrap for today! Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Spend it with your family or friends, enjoy quality time with each other, be happy as much as you can, laugh a LOT and stay healthy. Life is too short, trust me.

I promise the next post will not be in another year. I aim to post regularly. :-)

March 26, 2014

I am happy to announce that I will be working for the renowned Max-Planck Institute at the University of Stuttgart in an administrative capacity for the Professorship of Material Sciences some time in May 2014. I'm extremely excited about this position and cannot wait to start my new job.

Until then, I will be taking care of my recently operated shoulder and hope that in 3 months time, I can get back into my all-time favourite sport: TaeBo® !!! Of course, Zumba® too!... But TaeBo® will always be number ONE!

I also plan on scrapping more again. At least I do make cards now and then...

(for Dad)

On the house business: We should be getting our tool shed soon. After that, hopefully our back yard will be taken care of by the gardener and we'll have some grass to look at. :-) Last, but not least, our carport will be constructed. After that it's just a few little things, such as a few light fixtures, some painting, wall fixing and a canopy roof for our front door. It's all coming together very nicely.

My best friend Christine is coming to visit in May and I cannot wait to see her. I hope she can come see the house! :-)

January 02, 2014

Now that 2013 is over, I can reflect on what all has happened during the year.

First off, we finally got started on our house building plans on the property we had bought quite a while earlier. In February it got started amidst the nastiest weather you can imagine.....wind & plenty of continuous rain. No worries, it all worked out. This was 18 May 2013. Up in just one day. Freaky, huh!

The fun part was picking out the sanitary items, floors, wallpaper/paint. And furniture. YAY! ;-)

We moved in on the 27th of July 2013....the hottest day of the year, go figure. A measily 37°C. I thought the movers were going to pass out on me. They did an awesome job!

I planned the kitchen with IKEA. Unfortunately, the first two bozos they sent to build the kitchen obviously had no idea what they were doing. They began at the wrong end of the kitchen counter and so it was months before the kitchen was finally taken care of. I was able to work in the kitchen tentatively though, so no prob there. ;-)

To say the least.... I am estatic about my kitchen. I just LOVE it!!!

Mid September Jenna celebrated her 10th birthday. (August 2nd actually, but it's vacation time so we had to postpone.) Her wish was to have a sleep over birthday party, which I consented to (only God knows why...what on EARTH was I thinking??). I believe there were about 9 girls....holy hell I tell you. Never, never again....even Jenna said she never wants to do anything like that again. LOL It was a bit much. Here are some impressions....

They played some fun games.... first one was seeing how many m&m's they could suck up with a straw in a certain amount of time. Then they had foil fashion, where they needed to make fashion out of aluminum foil in a certain amount of time. The boy and girl team did a great job, but Jenna won. LOL And they had to carry her up and down the stairs so that her outfit wouldn't rip. Hilarious. She looked like a mannequin being carried like that. Later they played wii Sing... too bad I didn't film that. ;-) In the evening we watched "13 going on 30" the main character of which just "happens" to be Jenna. teehee -- I was glad when it was over...too many kids is just too chaotic.

Also in September, Danny began 6th grade and Jenna started 5th grade in the Gymnasium, which is a whole new ballpark compared to elementary school. She's workin' it like a champ though, very independent and ambitious. I just hope it stays that way!

Intro and welcoming day at the new school with her friends.

Here are a few images of the scenery around here.... Great walks, beautiful weather, gorgeous views...

Despite all the stress involved with getting the house built and settling in....I think we made some pretty terrific memories already! :D

I will be posting more photos of the inside of the house soon and as soon as my scrap studio is the way I want it, I might post a small video. :D Stay tuned!

To family and friends, real & facebook or otherwise: Have a wonderful, prosperous, joyous and healthy new year 2014!! All the best!

December 17, 2013

I gave in .... it would have been too much work to rebuild another website. And I do still want to blog! So, I bit the bullet and signed up for Typepad premium again.

We've settled into our house and have really gotten a LOT done in a short amount of time. We have most of the lamps we want installed, most of the furniture. Just a few more pieces of furniture and some of my crafts and it will look really cool.

The patio has been completed and in spring we will have the landscaping done. Can't wait!

I will be posting photos in a little bit, so watch for those.

This is the best choice we could have made. The neighborhood is great, neighbors are nice ;-) and the landscape is just gorgeous. I don't know how many sunrise/sunset photos I've already published via Instagram... but it's quite a few I'm sure. :-) Can't get enough of it.

The kids enjoy now being able to just go out and meet up with other kids in the area. What a turnaround! They love it as well. :-)

We are very much looking forward to Christmas in our new house. It's a whole new and wonderful feeling and I am more excited than I have been in a long time!

I kept the Christmas cards simple this year, due to lack of time and my scraproom is not organized the way I want it yet. ;-) But... at least I sent them, right?!

As soon as the tree is up (this weekend) I will definitely post photos of that... Our first Christmas tree in our own house. Yay! So...stay tuned for more!....

September 18, 2013

Heads up! I made it through the move.... close to two months we have lived in the new house already and I feel very comfortable. It's so much different than living in a rented apartment. Everything is new (basically) and it's a real neighborhood here. Feeling very blessed right now.

June 11, 2013

To say the least, I've been pretty busy as we starting building a house this year and will move in the end of July! YAY! It's pretty exciting stuff! I've hardly been able to "create" anything. Mostly dealing with things revolving around the house, obviously....like picking out flooring, wallpaper, paint, furniture, etc.

Here are a few things I did do along the way...

As soon as we are settled in the house, I will be creating once again. Here are some photos of the house....so far...

The front/side view

View from the back... still a mess at that point

tiled stairs to the basement

View looking from the back of the house... :-)

Mosaic in kid's bathroom

bathtub in our bathroom

tiles in our guest bathroom... (will be the same for master baths)

And most recently the kitchen floor tiles...

So, things are coming along. :-) But I gotta tell you... I cannot wait until it's finished! At times it can be a royal pain in the booty! :D Exciting and stressful at the same time. We will survive!

Oh.. yes, I almost forgot! I am now an official Bokwa® Fitness Level 1 Trainer! In case you don't know what that is, here is a video that says it all.

January 13, 2013

Ever since I closed up my side business, I've blogged even less, which doesn't really make any sense, since it was supposed to give me some more time. ... Yeah, right. The joke was on me. LOL

This past year just FLEW by! I'm like HELLOOOO?! Now it's 2013! GEEZ! 2012 was a mixed year starting off with my hubby having an operation and one week later it was my turn for my schoulder. It took a good six months before I could do any TaeBo and I thought "YAY", but then I kept getting sick with either flu or stomach problems, etc. All of a sudden my hip starts hurting for no apparent reason. If it's not one thing it's another, right?! Could I get a break here? C'mon! Then I started having stomach problems here and there, then my hands would shake, I got headaches, felt dizzy and out of breath a lot, out of energy, my heart began to race and over the Christmas holidays I lost 3 kilos, which didn't make any sense, because I ate like a horse and did absolutely NOTHING. Someone said maybe it's my thyroid and a light went on. I had hyperthyroidism years ago, but I thought it was gone. The general blood tests never seem to reveal the problem, only when they specifically test all of the hormones, etc. that have to do with the thyroid. I looked at the results and nearly all of the values were off... and I mean scary off! So, I got some medicine to tied me over until I can see the specialist in about a week. Glad I finally figured out what the heck was going on with me. Hopefully I can get the right dosage and turn into a calm person instead of a nervous wreck. Shaky hands and an often resting pulse of 110 bpm will do that to you.

The good things that will come to pass this year: We will be moving into a brand spanking new house in the summer! It's one part of a duplex house, but it's roomy nonetheless. I'm SO EXCITED! A new place, a "home" to call our own, new rooms for the kids (at 9 and 11 they are still in baby rooms... well, some of the furniture and definitely the walls are baby). We get to get rid of SO MUCH CRAP! Good GOD that stuff builds up over time. We did get rid of quite a few books by selling them online. But there is so much other stuff. I need to purge clothing, scrapbooking supplies and lots of other unnecessary JUNKO. ;-)

At first I was totally keen on having one of those Swedisch country houses built. A country style home, but where we will be moving it would stick out like a sore thumb unfortunately. It's just a totally different style of house, even though I still love them. But, the more and more we looked at houses on the prefabricated lot, I was looking at more and more modern type houses with lots of windows and sleek, simple. No lattice windows and the less wood we have in the house the better. There is SO MUCH WOOD in our apartment...the furniture, the walls are covered in wood, which makes everything look smaller and darker. It was nice for the last 10 years, but now it's time for a change.

What's awesome is that I will finally get my walk-in closet! Awesome!!! I'm already planning how to set it up, which won't be easy since it's in the attic....where our bathroom and bedroom will also be. But IKEA always has great ideas for something like that. For the last 10 years I've had my clothes on a rolling clothing stand and one shelf. It's not been very satisfying to say the least. ;-) Now we have SPACE!!!! AND... I will get my own scraproom with straight walls just for me! Dream come true! Can't wait to design and decorate it. So much fun! I cannot wait. I'm constantly looking at the IKEA catalog and my mind is racing with fun ideas. And ladies and gentlemen "white" is the key word here. YEAH! Hopefully by the end of February they can begin with the basement (if it's not to frosty out there). Yippee!

MY GOALS FOR 2013

1. Well, I plan to become healthy enough to return to my favorite sport TAEBO! I may get into Zumba as well. I tried it a few times and it's a lot of fun. :-) So, doctors, make sure you help me out here, ok??

2. I plan to blog a bit more... no, really I do! ;-)

3. Make our new home beautiful! I'm planning on wallpapering and painting, plus laminate flooring with a guy down the street that does renovations and things like that. So, I get to have a hands-on job, which I'm actually looking forward to. :D

4. More time for the kids - isn't that always the problem?? There is always so much to do, to plan, to organize that the children are shorted out of quality time, which they so desperately need. Especially our son who has ADHD. Often our daughter is short-changed, because we spend more time with our son, not fun time, just organising and trying to keep him on track. Kudos to our daughter who is so independent that she is able to take care of her own schoolwork etc. Good girl. I'm so proud of her! But our son has also made MAJOR improvements with his schoolwork and that is due to his wonderful new school. I'm so happy that we were able to get him in there.

5. LIVE more... there seems to be no time to do fun things. We're alway racing to do this and that and by the end of the year we realize... what fun things have we done? It's really sad, but one of my goals is to change that. I believe the new house will help out. I never wanted to invite anyone to the apartment, because I can't stand the way it looks anymore and there are just all kinds of "crap" everywhere, the old rug is dissolving, the wood is crowding me. If you're proud of your home, then you feel more hospitable. At least that is what I think. ;-) I'm sure we'll have more company over in the future.

6. Stop sweating the small stuff - I have come to realize that there are just some people you can't get along with, no matter how hard you try to be nice you always get slapped one way or another. These are people you are forced to deal with, so you have to cope. I've decided I'm not going to worry about it or get upset about it. I'm going to slap back and feel good about it. Not really the neighborly way, but I'm tired of being the "nice girl". I'm patient to a certain point and will let a lot of unneccesary and impolite comments and sarcasms pass by, steaming about them inside, but biting my tongue. Why should I let inconsiderate, bitchy and downright mean people get me so upset? Well, I'm done doing that. I will not initiate or instigate anything, but I won't take bullshit anymore. That is over now. The scorpion in me will be coming out, so watch it. No more nice girl. I can play that game too. Don't worry, you treat me nice, I'll treat you nice. That's the way it's supposed to work, right? ;-)

7. Organise myself. Good Lord I'm so bad. My attic is closely resembling a messy's house with papers, books, scrapbooking supplies everywhere! It's driving me insane, but my ADD is kind of hindering me, because I get so overwhelmed when stuff starts to build up. (No, I'm not using ADD as an excuse...it's just a fact.) I can't seem to get myself to start, because I just don't know where. Moving into the new house will help me as we will be able to junk a lot of "stuff" in the process and start new. We will not have little knick knacks standing around everywhere driving me nuts every time I pass by them. What for? Are they useful? Are they appealing? Not so much. It's a collection of decorative items I've gotten as gifts over the years and I feel bad throwing them out. But, sorry, I'm going to have to if I want to be organised. "Stuff" needs to GO! Note please: Handmade cards, scrapbooks, etc. will be kept FOREVER!

8. SCRAPBOOK more. Since I closed down my scrap for hire business, I just hadn't had much mojo for scrapbooking. Only the necessary cards or gifts for friends and family, nothing really for "us". To scrapbook you need fun memories...so that comes from the goal of "living" and I plan to take many photos along the way. Especially about the house! Yay!

9. LOVE - spend more time with my sweetheart, because we as parents seem to never have time for each other! Now that the kids are at an age where they are ok to stay home without a babysitter, we can finally do something fun together, alone, no kiddies. :-) Don't get me wrong, I love my kids to death. But, sometimes I can only take so many "Mommmmmy"'s per day. LOL We need time for us! And I will visit my parents as often as I can. I love them so much and want to cherish each moment with them. Life is too short.

10. CHILL - And... of course, I need more time for ME! The first step is getting back on track healthwise so I can do some fitness. Then scrap more... (time for me) and just go out with friends (rareity). It's so important to make sure you're happy, or else it's hard to make anyone else happy, right?! Right!

So...these are the thoughts that are going through my mind, besides the fact that I need to throw in the next load of wash and start cooking the Sauerbraten! LOL In between, I might organize just one little part of the attic. Computer desk or scrapdesk. ;-)

So, until hopefully soon. I'll be talking about the house plans a lot in the future obviously and will blog in detail once we move in with lots of photos of the construction and then decoration inside. Cannot WAIT!.